Uncovering Memories of Alleged Sexual Abuse: The Therapists Who Do It

ABSTRACT: Allegations of recovered memories of sexual
abuse have been
appearing frequently. The abuse is said to have been
"repressed" for years until, with
the help of a therapist, the memory is recovered. Therapists
specializing in this effort
maintain that memory deficits, amnesia, and dissociation
are characteristic of trauma,
that up to half of all incest survivors do not remember
their abuse, and that abuse
survivors must be helped to retrieve their memories
in order to recover. The therapists
retrieve memories with intrusive and unvalidated techniques
including direct
questioning, hypnosis, reading books, attending survivors'
groups, age regression,
dream analysis, and a variety of unorthodox procedures.
They support their
assumptions through concepts such as repression, dissociation,
traumatic amnesia,
body memories, and multiple personality disorder. However,
there is no support in the
scientific literature for the way these concepts are
used, nor any credible evidence that
it is common for children to undergo repeated, traumatic
sexual abuse but, as adults,
have no conscious memories of the abuse until it is
uncovered by a therapist "skilled"
in such matters.

In the past few years, there has been much publicity
about adults claiming suddenly
recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse. There
are no memories for years
because the abuse is supposed to have been completely
"repressed" until, generally
with a help of a therapist, it is then "recovered."
Some of these accounts have been
widely publicized in the media (e.g., Arnold, 1991;
Heller, 1991; Hull, 1991; Kennedy,
1991; Monaghan, 1990; Sifford, 1991; Toufexis, 1991;
Van Derbur Atler, 1991) and
sexual abuse "survivors" regularly appear
on television talk shows.

Reflecting the influence of the media hype on these
stories several states have
passed legislation accepting the facticity of claims
of recovered memories and
extending the statute of limitations so that allegations
of abuse 40 or 50 years ago
now have legal standing. A federal judge recently ruled
that claims of recovered
repressed memories are "not at all unreasonable"
(Brennan, 1992) and a jury
awarded $600,000 for abuse said to have taken place
32 years ago.

Approximately a year ago, several parents whose adult
children had accused them of
childhood sexual abuse based on recently recovered memories
and professionals
who had experience with these allegations began contacting
one another. In
February, 1992 Pamela Freyd, Ph.D. from Philadelphia,
along with several other
parents and professionals, formed the False
Memory Syndrome
Foundation (FMS)1,
a tax-exempt research and educational institution. The
original group also included
some women who had been in therapy, had recovered memories,
but then recanted
and saw their therapy experience as producing false
memories. The goal of this
organization, which has a professional advisory board
with well-known scientists from
throughout the country, is to understand and work towards
the prevention of such
cases. Its focus is on collecting and disseminating
relevant scientific information and
on promoting and sponsoring research. It is planning
a scientific conference on this
question in April, 1993.

Early in 1992, local newspaper columnists in Philadelphia,
San Diego, Toronto, and
Provo, Utah described the phenomenon and the formation
of the FMS Foundation and
published an 800 number to call for information. In
its first six months of existence, the
foundation received calls from approximately 600 families
and now, less than a year
later, they have received calls from close to 2000 families,
representing every state in
the union as well several foreign countries. Following
the single article in the Provo
weekly paper, in three days, over 150 families in this
single geographical area called
to report their experience. The FMS Foundation currently
is receiving over one
hundred telephone telephone calls each day and hundreds
of letters each week. They
also continue to receive calls from people who are recanting
their recovered
memories and see their therapy experience as negative
and harmful. A research
study with this population is being planned.

Preliminary Data From The Recovered Memory Survey Project

In cooperation with Pamela Freyd and the False Memory
Syndrome Foundation, we
are engaged in an ongoing research project in which
questionnaires are being sent to
people whose adult children have accused them of childhood
sexual abuse based on
their recently recovered memories. The first 26-page
questionnaires were sent last
spring. Of the 260 initial questionnaires, 133 were
returned. Of those not returned, 18
were later determined to have been inappropriately sent.
Therefore, the return rate
was 54%.

The subjects were people who responded to newspaper
articles or other media
presentations about the FMS phenomenon. The newspaper
articles contained an 800
number to call for information. Questionnaires were
sent to the callers who reported
that their adult child had recently recovered a memory
of repressed sexual abuse
which the caller denied. These respondents therefore
are not a random sample. In
addition, since the information comes from the accused
parents, not the accusing
child, the issue of the generalizability of the data
must be borne in mind. However,
these are the first data available regarding families,
parents, and adult children where
there are allegations of recovered repressed memories
of sexual abuse. In a new
research area, this is the way to begin-with as much
descriptive data as possible.

Although we had anticipated that most of the families
would be dysfunctional and that
the adult child reporting a repressed memory of childhood
sexual abuse would have a
history of significant psychological disturbance, the
preliminary results do not support
this hypothesis. Instead, the data suggest that these
are functional, intact, successful
and affluent families. The annual median family income
is $60,000 to 69,000. Four-
fifths of the parents are still married and four-fifths
of these judge their marriages to be
happy. The parents are well educated-two-thirds of the
fathers and half of the
mothers have an undergraduate or graduate degree. The
majority of the parents
report routinely eating dinner together as a family,
going on family vacations, and
being actively involved with their children when the
child was growing up. It appears
these families did what you are supposed to do to have
a good family.

The accusing adult children, most (90%) of whom are
females, are also highly
educated-only one-fifth have just a high school degree.
Over one-fourth have a
graduate degree and the rest have a B.A. or some college.
Although we had believed
that the accusing child would have a long history of
psychological problems, in only
one-third of the cases did the individual have psychological
or psychiatric treatment
prior to adulthood.

Others besides the fathers were often accused of abuse.
In one-third of the families,
mothers were accused and in one-third, a variety of
other persons were accused, most
often along with the parents. The abuse typically was
alleged to have started at a very
young age-often below age 2. In only one-fifth of the
cases was the abuse said to
have begun at age 6 and older. The years the memory
was "repressed" ranged from 8
to 51 with a median of 25 years.

The parents seldom had any warning that anything was
wrong prior to the accusation.
Most were told suddenly by a phone call or letter, or
by an announcement at a family
reunion or holiday when they reacted to the accusation
with surprise and shock. All
report being devastated.

The parents often had great difficulty getting specific
information as to exactly what is
was that they were supposed to have done. When they
asked for clarification they
were told things like, "You know!" "You
are an abuser," or "You incested me."
The
allegations that were specified tended to be of extremely
deviant and intrusive
behaviors. Only a few were of fondling alone. Repeated
physical violence or forced
anal or vaginal penetration was alleged in almost half
of the cases. Witnesses to the
abuse were reported in one-third of the cases and in
one-fifth, the allegations were of
satanic, ritual abuse.

For over half of the parents, civil lawsuits are a serious
concern and for almost one-
fifth, lawsuits have already been filed or threatened.
Although in some cases, siblings
later alleged abuse, in most (86%) they did not. In
three-fourths of the cases, the
siblings did not believe that the allegations made by
the accusing child were true.

The feature common to the sample appears to be the therapy
received by the adult
children. Although many of the parents know little about
the therapist or type of
therapy, those who do report similar information. The
memories were recovered in
therapy in almost all of the cases. The book, The Courage
to Heal (Bass & Davis,
1988) was frequently used along with other survivor
or self-help books. Hypnotherapy,
dream interpretation, and rape counseling were frequently
reported along with incest
survivor groups, eating disorder groups, and 12-step
programs such as Adult Children
of Alcoholics. The therapists, approximately three-fourths
of whom are females,
included social workers (24%), psychologists (33%),
psychiatrists (8%), and
"counselors" (33%).

The Therapists Who Uncover the Memories

The therapists who uncover "repressed" memories
are part of a growing network of
professionals who believe that large numbers of women
have suffered childhood
sexual abuse but that many have repressed their memories
of this trauma. Summit
(1990) refers to the victims "we don't know about,
those who don't disclose" and
asserts that the memory of abuse is often buried within
a conscious memory of a
happy childhood. He claims that half of all women were
sexually abused in childhood
but many do not remember the abuse and recommends using
therapy methods that
are "invasive and intrusive" in order to uncover
the abuse (Roan, 1990).

Maltz (1990), who claims that half of all incest survivors
have some form of memory
loss, lists a variety of physical and psychological
problems she maintains are caused
by sexual abuse. She recommends that therapists help
patients without memories
validate their experiences so that hidden memories of
incest can surface. Paxton
(1991) asserts that half of all incest survivors do
not remember the abuse, that many
will only have vague bits and pieces of memories and/or
awareness, and that some
will never remember the abuse. Blume (1990) believes
that perhaps half of all
survivors do not remember the abuse and provides a long
and varied list of symptoms
that she maintains suggest abuse. Courtois (1992) claims
that a therapist can can
suspect childhood sexual abuse through "disguised
presentation" of symptoms and
provides a long list of presenting problems which are
likely to indicate sexual abuse,
even when the patient provides no history of abuse.

Dolan (1991) recommends assisting a client to recall
repressed abuse when the client
and therapist suspect abuse, when the client is exhibiting
symptoms indicative of
abuse, and when these symptoms have not responded to
other forms of treatment.
The symptoms she describes include a wide range of problems,
including dreams of
being pursued, sleep disturbances, eating disorders,
substance abuse, compulsive
sexuality, sexual dysfunction, chronic anxiety attacks,
depression, difficulties with
relationships, distrust of others, guilt, impaired self-esteem,
self-destructive behaviors,
and personality disorders. These symptoms are similar
to those suggested by others.

The therapists accepting these assumptions maintain
that memory deficits, amnesia
and dissociation are characteristic of trauma and that
abuse survivors must be helped
to retrieve their memories so that they can process
the trauma (e.g., Bass & Davis,
1988; Blume, 1990; Courtois, 1992; Dolan, 1991; Fredrickson,
1992). Retrieval of
these alleged autobiographical memories of abuse is
thus necessary for healing and
recovery.

The therapists support these assumptions by referring
to one or more of several
psychological concepts. For example, adult survivors
are said to have "repressed" the
memory because it was too painful, or to have "dissociated"
during the abuse as an
automatic protective mechanism. They may have defended
themselves against the
devastating memories by developing "traumatic amnesia"
for the abuse. If the abuse
was frequent and prolonged, alter personalities will
form to protect the child during the
abuse and the adult survivors will therefore have multiple
personality disorder.
Although the abuse is "repressed" or "dissociated"
and not available to conscious
memory, the trauma exerts itself through a variety of
emotional and behavior problems
and will later show itself indirectly through "body
memories," "flashbacks, or
"nightmares."

A careful review of the scientific literature, however,
fails to provide support for the way
that these concepts are used (Wakefield & Underwager,
in press). There is no support
for the assumption that it is common for children to
undergo repeated, traumatic
sexual abuse but, as adults, have no conscious memories
of the abuse until it is
uncovered by a therapist "skilled" in such
matters.

Repression

Despite the fact that repression is a basic assumption
of Freudian personality theory (Erdelyi, 1990; Singer, 1990; Weinert & Perlmutter
1988), there is no empirical
quantifiable evidence to support it (Hock, 1982; Holmes,
1974, 1990; Weinert & Perlmutter, 1988). Holmes (1990) states that the only
evidence for repression comes
from case studies and anecdotal reports and he maintains
that there is no controlled
laboratory evidence supporting the concept of repression.

Also, traditional analytically-oriented therapists,
who may use the concept of
repression, are concerned with the patient's perceptions
of reality, rather than the
historical accuracy of the material uncovered in therapy
(Wakefield, 1992). Bower
(1990), in discussing the concept of repression and
recovery of forgotten memories,
notes that techniques in therapy, such as associations,
can enable the retrieval of lost
memories but it is difficult to ascertain the accuracy
and veracity of the memory that is
retrieved. Nash (1992) also warns against assuming that
childhood memories
retrieved in therapy are historically truthful. He gives
an example of a young man who,
with the help of a previous therapist, uncovered vivid
and detailed memories of
multiple abductions by space aliens.

Repression, therefore, is not generally accepted in
the scientific community except
among analytically-oriented therapists, who base their
beliefs on anecdotal reports
and clinical case studies. Also, there is nothing in
the repression literature supporting
the belief that it is common for repeated episodes of
sexual abuse to be completely
repressed for years, only to be remembered only years
later.

Dissociation and Psychogenic Amnesia

Another concept used to explain the lack of memory for
childhood abuse is
dissociation. Dissociation is defined by the DSM-III-R
(American Psychiatric
Association, 1987) as "a disturbance or alteration
in the normally integrative functions
of identify, memory, or consciousness" (p. 269).
Because the individual's thoughts,
feelings, or actions are altered, some information may
not be integrated with other
information and therefore is not accessible to memory.
A dissociated memory is seen
as distinctly different from one that is simply forgotten
(Spiegel, 1991). Dissociation
ranges from minor forms, such as becoming lost in movie
or book or "spacing out"
while driving, to pathological forms such as depersonalization,
amnesia, or multiple
personality disorder.

Dissociation is seen as a protective response to traumatic
childhood sexual abuse in
which the child dissociates the abuse experiences so
that they are not available to
memory. Since the child is in an altered state of consciousness,
there is limited access
to these memories during the ordinary state. Retrieval
of the memories is therefore
accomplished in adulthood through an altered state of
consciousness such as
hypnosis or age regression.

A major difficulty with the idea that up to one-quarter
of the women in the United
States have been abused but don't remember it because
they dissociated is that one
would expect for the behaviors and symptoms of dissociation
occurring in childhood to
be observed and therefore found in the literature on
psychopathology in children.
However, recent review articles (Lahey & Kazdin,
1988, 1989, 1990) on childhood
disorders do not even mention dissociative disorders
and the DSM-III-R lists no
dissociative disorders under childhood disorders. There
are no data showing large
numbers of children producing dissociative symptoms.

Psychogenic amnesia is the dissociation mechanism postulated
to explain the lack of
memory for childhood abuse. The DSM-III-R (American
Psychiatric Association, 1987)
states that the essential feature of psychogenic amnesia
is a sudden inability to recall
important personal information. Although Loewenstein
(1991) broadens the definition
of psychogenic amnesia to include a group of events,
there is no research supporting
this conception of psychogenic amnesia. There are no
empirical data supporting a
concept of psychogenic amnesia for a category of events
stretching across several
years at different times and under different circumstances
in differing environments.

Also, the traditional case studies of psychogenic amnesia
in the literature indicate that
such persons have undergone severe life stresses, such
as violent physical abuse,
torture, confinement in concentration camps, or combat.
In such cases, the events
should be able to be independently verified since without
verification that an event
has, in fact, occurred, one cannot talk about amnesia
for the event. Therefore, when
dissociation and/or traumatic amnesia is used to account
for the fact that the memory
of the abuse is buried within a conscious memory of
a happy childhood, there must be
verification of the abuse. However, corroboration by
parents, siblings, or others
seldom occurs in recovered memory cases.

Most people experiencing trauma do not develop amnesia
for the trauma. Case
studies on the reactions of people to documented severe
trauma, such as fires,
airplane crashes, automobile accidents, and being held
hostage show many
symptoms but total amnesia for the event is not mentioned
as a common response
(Spiegel, 1991). Terr's (1985, 1988, 1990) research
with children who have
experienced documented trauma indicates that children
over the ages of 3 or 4 do not
develop amnesia for the trauma. All of the children
in this age group had full verbal
recall or extensive spot memories, although the memories
may have been inaccurate
or fragmented. Although they may have denied parts of
the aftermath and the effect on
them, they did not deny the event. This is consistent
with Malmquist (1986) who
reports that in a study on children who had seen a parent
murdered, not one child age
5 to 10 years "repressed" the memory.

Children under 3 or 4 are unlikely to remember the trauma
because of their age, but
this is not psychogenic amnesia or repression. Such
forgetting is due to the
phenomenon of infantile or childhood amnesia. Adults
and older children do not
usually remember incidents from their lives that happen
prior to age 3 to 4 (Eisenberg,
1985; Fivush & Hamond, 1990; Loftus, 1992; Nelson
& Ross, 1980). This inability to
recall events from an early age is a function of the
normal process of growth and
development.

Infantile amnesia may even encompass a larger age span.
Wetzler and Sweeney
(1986), in a review of research investigating childhood
of infantile amnesia, report that
research shows fewer memories than would be expected
through the normal
forgetting function under age 5 and they therefore believe
that childhood amnesia
begins below age 5. The phenomenon of infantile or childhood
amnesia also means
that claims of recovered memories from a very early
age are suspect.

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

The diagnosis of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
is often found when sexual
abuse is alleged. In recovered memory cases, this diagnosis
is used to explain the
lack of memories for the event.

According to the DSM-III-R (American Psychiatric Association,
1987), the PTSD
diagnosis is given when an individual develops characteristic
symptoms after
experiencing an extremely distressing and traumatic
event that is outside the range of
usual human experience. This event is usually experienced
with intense fear, terror,
and helplessness. The symptoms involve reexperiencing
the traumatic event,
avoidance of stimuli associated with the event or numbing
of general responsiveness,
and increased arousal. However, although the criteria
for PTSD mention numbing and
efforts to avoid thoughts or feelings along with psychogenic
amnesia for an important
aspect of the event, there is no mention of total amnesia
for the whole event. Also, in
order to diagnose PTSD, there must be a known stressful
event. The diagnosis cannot
be given on the basis of the symptoms alone without
verification of the event.

Multiple Personality Disorder

Multiple personality disorder is often suggested in
recovered memory cases,
especially when the alleged abuse is violent and sadistic.
The DSM-III-R (American
Psychiatric Association, 1987) defines multiple personality
disorder (MPD) as the
existence within the person of two or more distinct
personalities or personality states.
The disorder is believed to begin early in life and
most people with this diagnosis are
women.

Many people believe that most individuals diagnosed
with MPD were abused as
children (Kluft, 1987, 1991; Putnam, Guroff, Silberman, Barban, & Post 1986). A
"protector" personality is believed to emerge
and take over for the individual, who
therefore escapes psychologically from the abuse (Spiegel,
1991). However, support
for this theory is based only on clinical case reports
and in a recent review of the
empirical literature on the long-term effects of child
sexual abuse, Beitchman, Zucker,
Hood, daCosta, and Akman (1991) concluded that as yet
there is insufficient evidence
to confirm a relationship between childhood sexual abuse
and multiple personality
disorder.

In addition, even though it is in the DSM-III-R, MPD
itself is controversial. A few
therapists are seeing most of the MPD cases, and the
majority of them are in the
United States. There is little empirical evidence supporting
MPD and it is heavily
dependent upon cultural influences for both its emergence
and its diagnosis. Even if it
qualifies as a distinct psychiatric disorder, it is
greatly overdiagnosed (Aldridge-Morris,
1989; Fahy, 1988; Thigpen & Cleckley, 1984). Spanos
has developed a social
psychological conception of MPD (Spanos, 1991; Spanos, Weekes, & Bertrand, 1985)
in which he postulates that people learn to enact the
role of the multiple personality
patient and psychotherapists play an important part
in the generation and
maintenance of this role enactment. They have conducted
an extensive series of
experiments to demonstrate this.

Therapy For Uncovering Memories

The questionnaires in the FMS project described above
indicates that the recovered
memory almost always first surfaces in therapy. What
takes place in such therapy?
Descriptions of the type of treatment offered are found
in the writings and workshop
presentations of therapists as well as in the anecdotal
reports from women who have
undergone such treatment. We found no outcome data in
the descriptions of these
programs. There is no information given on validity
or reliability of the techniques
used.

Treatment programs use a variety of techniques to help
patients recover memories of
sexual abuse. These include direct questioning, hypnosis,
reading books, attending
survivors' groups, age regression, and dream analysis.
In the questionnaire,
respondents also reported a variety of unconventional
techniques including prayer,
meditation, age regression, neurolinguistic programming,
reflexology, channeling,
psychodrama, casting out demons, yoga, trance writing,
and primal scream therapy.

An example of typical treatment is Lundberg-Love's program
at the University of Texas
at Tyler (1989 & undated). The first goal of treatment
is to work on memory retrieval.
After the woman can develop memories of the abuse and
talk about what happened,
she is encouraged to express her rage by throwing darts
at pictures of the perpetrator
and writing him angry letters. Her feelings of shame
are dealt with through art and
music, and by taking bubble baths to eliminate dirty
feelings.

Courtois (1992) discusses how to bring about the retrieval
of memories. The
assumption is that events can be perceived and stored
by a preverbal child, that visual
or imaginal and other sensory cues can stimulate the
retrieval of these memories, and
that since abuse memories were stored during experiences
that produced arousal
and helplessness, the client may have to reexperience
painful emotion in order to
remember. Triggers for recall include developmental
events or crises; events that
symbolize the original trauma; crises associated with
recollection, disclosure,
confrontation, reporting, and criminal justice; issues
in therapy; and life states or
events. Survivors' groups and self-help groups can help
stimulate memories.

Techniques used to retrieve the memories include hypnosis,
guided imagery, writing
an autobiography, drawing, guided movement, body work,
psychodrama, making a
family genogram, drawing the floor plan of the childhood
home, and bringing in family
pictures and childhood memorabilia such as toys, report
cards, and diaries. The
memories may return either overtly or in symbolic form
such as flashbacks, body
memories, and nightmares and dreams.

Courtois (1992) maintains that a strong alliance between
therapist and survivor is
necessary for memory work. The therapist should be calm,
accepting, reassuring,
encouraging, and validating of the disclosures. Although
she cautions against the
therapist conclusively informing the patient that the
abuse happened, Courtois says
that it may be necessary for the therapist to speculate
about it to the client.

Courtois believes that memory can return physiologically,
through body memories and
perceptions. The body memory concept assumes that if
abuse occurs when the
individual is too young to recall, although the mind
may not remember the event, the
body is able to. Courtois therefore asserts that the
survivor may retrieve colors, hear
sounds, experience smells, odors and taste sensations,
and her body may react in
pain reminiscent of the abuse and develop physical stigmata
as the memory is
retrieved.

Fredrickson (1992) believes that repressed memories
of abuse stalk the individual's
life but have been held in storage until the person
is strong enough to face them. She
differentiates between five types of memories: ordinary
memories, or "recall"
memories, "imagistic" memories (memories that
break though the conscious mind with
images like a slide show), "feeling" memories
(memories that are the feelings that
something abusive has happened without the actual memory),
"body" memories (the
physical manifestation of abuse-"Our physical bodies
always remember sexual
abuse." p. 93), and "acting-out" memories
(unconscious memories in which a
repressed incident is spontaneously acted out through
some physical action).

Dolan (1991) recommends hypnosis, ideomotor signaling
with the unconscious, age
regression, and automatic writing as aids to memory
retrieval. She also describes a
variety of techniques for "facilitating integration
of recently retrieved memories...(to)
strengthen the client's ability to connect consistently
to her inner resources...and
rituals to facilitate feelings of completion and letting
go" (p. 129). These include
making and carrying around an Indian "medicine
bundle" composed of symbolic
articles and written words evocative of the client's
healing resources, holding an
imaginary funeral for the family of origin, burying
pictures of the family, having a
divorce ceremony from the family member(s), doing "bodywork,"
producing art projects
such as face masks, collages, and Amish quilts, taking
herb-scented bubble baths and
buying flowers, writing down feelings and then burning
the paper, tape recording
expressions of anger, making a tape to the inner child
and then burying the tape in the
childhood yard, and nurturing the inner child by buying
a cuddly teddy bear or rag
doll, eating ice cream, and getting a puppy.

Several presenters at a symposium at the 99th Annual
Convention of the American
Psychological Association (Grand, Alpert, Safer, & Milden, 1991) described how to
help a patient uncover memories of sexual abuse. They
see the role of the therapist as
helping the patient become convinced of the historical
reality of the abuse, even when
there is no external corroboration and even when the
patient herself doubts that the
memory is real. The therapist is identified as the one
person in the patient's life who
"really sees the truth." The therapist, therefore,
should never show doubts to the
patient, but should stress that the abuse really happened
and was terrible. Body
memories, dream analysis, and analysis of transference
are used both to retrieve the
memories and to provide "validation" of the
historical reality. The therapist should not
be limited by the fact that the historical truth cannot
be verified.

An illustration of a network actively engaged in recovering
memories is Three in One
Concepts, an organization begun and headed by a Gordon
Stokes who claims a
clinical background in behavioral genetics, psychodrama,
and role play training
(David, 1992). Stokes claims to have taken specialized
kinesiology into new avenues
of self-discovery. There are said to be at least 1500
facilitators of this new specialized
kinesiology and seminars in this approach are offered
all over the world. The
technique is to have the individuals extend their arms,
then ask them questions and
press on their arms. The body, through the unconscious,
answers the questions. If the
arms stay rigid, that means yes. If the arms fall back,
that is a no answer (David, 1992).
When the calls came in from Provo, Utah, several of
the persons described their
experience in therapy that led to the development of
putative memories as precisely
this procedure.

The book, The Courage to Heal (Bass & Davis, 1988),
is used by many therapists.
This book contains statements such as: "If you
are unable to remember any specific
instances...but still have a feeling that something
abusive happened to you, it
probably did" (p. 21); "If you think you were
abused and your life shows the symptoms,
then you were" (p. 22); and "If you are don't
remember your abuse you are not alone.
Many women don't have memories, and some never get memories.
This doesn't
mean they weren't abused" (p. 81). Demands for
details or corroboration are seen as
unreasonable: "You are not responsible for proving
that you were abused" (p. 137).
The book encourages revenge, anger, fantasies of murder
or castration, and
deathbed confrontations. The veracity of the recovered
memories is never
questioned-one section uncritically presents an account
of ritual abuse by a satanic
cult of town leaders and church officials that included
sexual abuse, murder,
pornography, drugs, electric shock, and forcible impregnation
of breeders to
produce babies for sacrifice.

In the survey project, a majority of the respondents
who had some knowledge of the
type of therapy reported that hypnosis was used. However,
the use of hypnosis for
memory retrieval raises serious questions about the
accuracy of the recovered
memories. There is agreement and empirical verification
regarding several aspects of
hypnosis (Cardena & Spiegel, 1991; Orne, Soskis, Dinges, Orne, & Tonry; 1985;
Putnam, 1991a; Spanos, Quigley, Gwynn, Glatt, & Perlini, 1991). Under hypnosis,
people are more suggestible and are therefore more likely
to agree with a persuasive
communication. But there are serious problems with the
accuracy and validity of
memories that are recovered through hypnosis. However,
the individual is apt to
experience these memories, which can be quite vivid
and detailed, as subjectively
real. This increases subjective confidence in the reality
of the memories. Therefore the
individual appears confident and certain about the memories,
and can be persuasive
and convincing when talking about them. This problem
is exacerbated with individuals
diagnosed with MPD and PTSD since such persons appear
to have high hypnotizability.

Ganaway (1991) notes that memories retrieved in a hypnotic
trance are likely to
contain a combination of both fact and fantasy in a
mixture that cannot be accurately
determined without external corroboration. Since hypnosis
increases confidence in
the veracity of both correct and incorrect recalled
material, the therapist should be very
cautious about reinforcing the truthfulness of any memories
which are elicited through
hypnosis unless there is outside corroboration.

Individuals are frequently referred to a survivors'
therapy groups or self-help groups
such as those for adult children of alcoholics. Such
groups are apt to give continual
encouragement for uncovering memories of increasingly
intrusive and deviant abuse.
Herman and Schatzow (1987) report that their survivor
therapy group "proved to be a
powerful stimulus for recovery of previously repressed
traumatic memories" (p. 1).
Price (1992) describes the suggestibility and group
influence where, after one woman
would suddenly recall a new abusive event, others would
soon recall similar events.
Since the norm is that group members were abused whether
or not they remember it,
and the task of therapy is to uncover the hidden memories,
group members are given
attention, encouragement, and reinforcement as they
uncover and report their
repressed memories. In fact, Campbell (1992) observes
that given the process of
conformity and compliance that will characterize any
group, clients in such a group
who deny a history of sexual abuse run the risk of being
ostracized as denying
deviants.

Survivors groups and books often recommend filing a
civil lawsuit as part of the
healing process (Bass & Davis, 1988; Crnich & Crnich, 1992; Nohlgren, 1991). As a
result, many "survivors" have filed civil
lawsuits against their alleged abusers (Colaneri & Johnson, 1992; Kaza, 1991; Wares, 1991).
Several states have extended
the statutory period of limitations in civil cases so
that the statute of limitations does not
begin until two or three years after the alleged abuse
is remembered and/or after the
claimant understands that the abuse caused injury (Colaneri
& Johnson, 1992; Geffner, 1991; Hendrix, 1989; Kaza, 1991; Loftus, 1992;
Loftus & Kaufman, in press).
The FMS Foundation is aware of more than 300 cases in
which survivors are at some
stage of suing based on the recovery of "repressed
memories."

It must be clearly recognized that there is no acceptable
evidence for the validity and
reliability of any of these alleged therapeutic techniques.

Satanic Ritual Abuse

Memories uncovered in therapy often grow and develop
until they include satanic,
ritualistic abuse. The recovered memory questionnaire
project found that one-fifth of
the respondents reported ritual abuse. Preliminary data
from a survey by the The
American Bar Association indicates that about one-third
of local prosecutors have
handled cases involving "ritualistic or satanic
abuse" (Victor, 1991a, 1991b).

A few therapists seem to be finding almost all of the
survivors, who are often
diagnosed as multiple personality disorder. Bottoms,
Shaver, and Goodman (1991),
reporting on preliminary data from a survey of 6000
American Psychological
Association psychologists, state that although 30% of
the 2709 respondents reported
seeing at least one ritualistic or religion-related
abuse case-the model number seen
was one and the median two. But 16 (2%) clinicians reported
having seen more than
a hundred apiece and one clinician claimed 2000 cases.
Of the respondents who
reported seeing such a case, 93% believed that the alleged
abuse actually happened.

Shafer and Cozolino (1992) in a study of 20 adult outpatients
who reported such
abuse, note that these individuals did not seek therapy
because of awareness of
abuse. Instead they entered treatment for symptoms of
severe depression, anxiety, or
dissociation. However, once in therapy, the uncovering
of memories became the
primary focus. The subjects often participated in 12-step
programs and incest survivor
support groups which became substitute families for
the subjects who had cut ties with
their biological families. Eventually all 20 retrieved
memories of witnessing sacrificial
murder of animals, infants, children, and/or adults,
cannibalism, and severe and
sadistic sexual abuse by multiple perpetrators. Shafer
and Cozolino maintain that
these retrieved "memories" are of historically
real events.

Gould and Cozolino (1992) believe that since psychotherapy
is the only way for the
victim to escape the cult, the cults interrupt the therapeutic
process through programming alter personalities to disrupt treatment.
These alters are programmed to
stay in regular telephone contact with the cult, to
engage in self-injury, to scramble the
message received by the patient, and to respond to messages
from the cult, such as
hand signals, taps on the window, or a word or phrase.
The individual must therefore
be helped to recall all of the components of the abuse
in order to identify and
understand all of the alters, who will then no longer
be compelled to obey the
programming instructions from the cult. A therapeutic
alliance should be established
with the satanic alters and the therapist should resist
impulses to exorcise them.

Young, Sachs, Braun, and Watkins (1991) report on 37
alleged satanic cult survivors
found among dissociative disorder patients. These people
entered therapy with
problems of severe impairment in functioning along with
anxiety and depression.
Typically they had some memories of abuse but had nearly
complete amnesia for the
childhood ritual abuse. The ritual abuse memories emerged
during the course of
treatment. Eventually most of the patients reported
memories of satanic ritual abuse,
including sexual abuse, physical abuse, torture, death
threats, animal mutilation,
infant sacrifice, cannibalism, marriage to satan, being
buried alive in coffins and
graves, and forced impregnation and sacrifice of their
own child.

Mulhern (1991) notes that all 37 patients reported by
Young, et al. were in treatment
for dissociative disorders and that they are highly
suggestible patients who move in
and out of altered states of consciousness, have significant
gaps in autobiographical
memory retrieval, suffer from source amnesia, are particularly
vulnerable to trance
logic, and compulsively seek to discover and conform
to even the most subtle
expectations of their therapists. Their reports of ritual
abuse are basically rarefied
memory narratives assembled in therapy over time out
of bits of images and affect
which emerged when the patients were abreacting, dreaming,
experiencing
flashbacks, experiencing dissociated states, or responding
to explicit questioning
during hypnotic interviews.

The allegations in survivors' accounts have not been
independently verified. Despite
hundreds of investi-gations by the FBI and police, there
is no independent evidence of
ritual abuse, animal and human sacrifice, murder, and
cannibalism of hundreds of
children by a conspiracy of apparently normal adults
who are functional and
organized enough to leave no trace of their activities
(Hicks, 1991; Lanning, 1991,
1992; Putnam, 1991b; Richardson, Best, & Bromley,
1991; Victor, 1991a, 1991b, & in
press). However, this knowledge does not dissuade the
therapists who believe in their
existence.

Information from two women who underwent therapy experiences
such as those that
are reported above are included in this issue of the
journal (Gavigan, 1992;
Gondolf,1992). These accounts give vivid details not
only of the techniques and
procedures used but of the harmfulness of such a "treatment"
experience. Both
women entered therapy for problems other than sexual
abuse-one woman for
depression and the other for an eating disorder. But
both were questioned extensively
from the beginning about abuse. Both were given a variety
of medications,
encouraged to confront their parents, read survivors
books, and participated in group
therapy where the group norm was talking about the abuse.
Both were encouraged to
remember more and more about the alleged abuse and eventually
both developed
graphic and detailed stories involving violent, sadistic
ritual abuse. Both women
clearly became worse as a result of therapy. One instigated
a civil lawsuit against her
father. (Both also are intelligent and courageous women
who are not only able to
understand how the therapy process led them to develop
the false memories, but are
willing to talk about their experiences in the hope
that this will provide information
helpful in understanding the recovered memory phenomenon.)

In a participant observer study, Nathan (1992) immersed
herself in the incest
survivors' movement, including attending a marathon
retreat for survivors of incest.
There were six therapists for three dozen women survivors,
who clutched stuffed
animals and began the retreat in a room furnished only
with mattresses. Rage at the
perpetrators was expressed by the women's "inner
children" through beating
telephone books with rubber hoses while squatting over
the mattresses and
screaming obscenities.

Eleven of the women had no abuse memories but were told
to participate in the
activities. The participants were encouraged to give
detailed descriptions about their
abuse in the group setting because hearing the others'
stories might help trigger
memories. When one woman, recalling memories of cult
abuse by her mother, sobbed
and said she didn't know if the memories were really
true, the therapist told her she
had to face the memories and ordered her to do mattress
work, "Now!" She told
another woman that, "When your kids inside are
ready, more memories will come."

Nathan observes that a competition began over the satanic
abuse reported by several
of the women in which each produced more and more detailed
and bizarre accounts.
The only kind of victims with status among the women
and therapists were the women
who had suffered rape, torture, and black robes. Others
who only reported emotional
abuse or battering or couldn't remember the abuse had
no status in the "swimsuit
competition atmosphere" of the retreat.

Loftus (1992) reports on a situation where, after he
was accused by his adult
daughter, a father hired a private investigator who
went to the daughter's therapist
complaining of nightmares and trouble sleeping. On the
third visit, the therapist told
the pseudo-patient that she was certain the woman was
experiencing body memories
from a trauma, earlier in life, that she could not remember.
The pseudo-patient said
she didn't remember any trauma.

The therapist said this was the case for many people
and told her to read The
Courage to Heal. The therapist then read from the long
list of symptoms from Blume's
book, Secret Survivors. During this, for two-thirds
of the symptoms, the therapist
looked at the pseudo-patient and nodded her head as
though this was confirming the
diagnosis. The therapist then recommended the woman
attend an incest survivors
group. By the fourth session, the diagnosis of probable
incest victim was confirmed
based on the symptoms of body memories and sleep disorders,
even though the
pseudo-patient insisted she had no memory of such events

Not to be Fooled and Not to Fool

A common factor in the academic experience both of us
had, one at the University of
Minnesota and one at University of Maryland, was a general
skepticism and a respect
for science. The commitment to science can be conceptualized
as adhering to the
principle Not To Be Fooled and Not To Fool Anybody Else (Meehl, 1986). The passion
not to be fooled and not to fool anybody else is not
as much in evidence in psychology
as it once was but we still maintain that one attribute
of a competent psychologist is
the ability to evaluate critically the nature or state
of the scientific evidence that can be
mustered to support an opinion, a view, or a diagnosis.

Especially for clinical psychologists there appears
to be a mistaken readiness to rely
upon clinical experience, even one's own idiosyncratic
experience, as a reliable and
valid source of truth. There is no more solidly established
fact in the science of
psychology than the superiority of actuarial, statistical
methods over clinical
experience (Dawes, Faust, & Meehl, 1989). It is
true that in a clinical setting hard data
may be difficult to come by and the clinician is always
operating with incomplete data.
Nevertheless, it has ethical implications if the clinician
uses a diagnostic procedure
which has been shown to have negative validity to make
life and death decisions
about people and their families that may have far reaching
destructive consequences.
The ethical issues are sharpened if the clinician takes
the patient's or the taxpayers'
money for a procedure with a high probability of fooling
both the clinician and the
patient. This is totally different than choosing to
act when there is a pragmatic reality.
To know that a procedure does not predict anything and
produces large numbers of
false positives and erroneous diagnoses and to continue
to use it is not just foolish, it
is unethical.

The therapists who are committed to retrieving recovered
repressed memories of
childhood sexual abuse argue that it is a therapeutic
necessity to believe the patient
even if the memories cannot be verified and even if
they are not historically accurate.
They claim that it has therapeutic benefit and helps
the person when the therapist
believes their story. But there are no quantified data
that can support that claim but
only assertions of clinical impressions. This foolish
idea rests upon the assumption
that error can be beneficial. Error can never contribute
to healing nor to a better life.

Anyone familiar with the history of medicine can see
that it is not enough to be a
compassionate, empathic, warm, even bright person, who
wants to help people who
are hurting. This is the error that led to medical practices
such as performing bleeding
(which killed George Washington), using insulin shock
therapy, pulling out teeth to
treat schizophrenia, performing frontal lobotomies,
or putting premature babies in an
oxygen-enriched environment (which sometimes blinded
them). Most recently, breast
mastectomies and heart bypass surgery have been shown
often to be ineffective and
unnecessary.

The competent psychologist can make the discrimination
between explanations that
have some support for accuracy and myths or dogmas that
do not (Meehl, 1959,
1960). Making an accurate determination of claims of
recovered memory involves a
probability assessment by the clinician. The inference
goes from behavior of the
rememberer seen on the outside at the present and guessing
about an unobservable
inner state, including complex internal dynamics enduring
across long periods of time
to an unobserved and largely uncorroborated prior event.
The less that is known
about any of the multitudinous entities, intervening
variables, the many layers of
interactions, and the antecedent probability of all
postulated phenomena, the greater
the likelihood of errors.

The psychologist who clings to presumed knowledge with
no evidence of validity or
reliability but rather a high probability of error is
no better than the witch doctor, the
astrologer, and the palmist who may fit in on the carnival
midway but has no place in a
venture calling itself science or claiming to heal.

Claimed Support for Repressed Abuse and Recovered Memories
in the Literature

There are a few studies claiming support for the concept
of repressed abuse and
validation of the historical reality of recovered memories.
These are cited frequently by
the believers as evidence that the concepts have been
empirically validated. But
these studies must be read very carefully since there
are serious problems in terms of
what they purport to demonstrate.

It is difficult to get information about how abuse was
verified. Rich (1990) notes that
when he has asked for verification of self-reported
childhood abuse, the "confirmation"
often consisted of sketchy hearsay information from
other family members, apparently
reported by the woman herself during therapy. The two
articles most often referred to
are by Briere and Conte (1989) and Herman and Schatzow
(1987).

Briere and Conte (1989) describe a sample of 468 adults
with self-reported childhood
sexual abuse histories and state that 60% of their subjects
reported some period
before age 18 when they could not recall their first
abuse experience. However, they
only asked one question to investigate this: "During
the period of time before the first
forced sexual experienced (sic) happened and your eighteenth
birthday was there
ever a time when you could not remember the forced sexual
experience?"

This is a very confusing and poorly worded question.
"Could not remember" is vague
and could mean many things besides amnesia or repression.
It could be interpreted to
mean just not thinking about the abuse for days or months,
to mean forgetting about it
until reminded somehow, or perhaps, to mean consciously
determining not to think
about it. Also, some subjects might interpret the question
to include a period of time
before the abuse occurred, as the question literally
asks.

But Briere and Conte (1989) conclude from their study
that "repression (partial or
otherwise) appears to be a common phenomenon among clinical
sexual abuse
survivors" (p. 4). However, there is no definition
of repression given nor is there any
presentation of the presumed relationship between the
answer to the question and
amnesia, forgetting, and/or repression. There is no
distinction made between simple
forgetting which psychology has known about since Wundt's
first laboratory and
repression. They simply assume their single highly confusing
question measures the
postulated complex process of repression.

They then assert that "some significant proportion"
of psychotherapy clients who deny
a history of sexual abuse have, nevertheless, been abused.
Nowhere in their report,
however, is there any information concerning verification
of the claimed abuse. It is
simply assumed that a client who recovers the memory
under the guidance of a
therapist is reporting an actual event. At no point
do they address the issue of the generalizibility from their sample of patients recruited
by therapists and the demand
characteristics of being patients in a network of sex-abuse
therapists. At best this study
may provide a base for hypotheses to be tested by further
research but it cannot be
advanced as establishing the reality of a process of
repression of memories of sexual
abuse.

Herman and Schatzow (1987) report on their experience
with a therapy group for
incest survivors and maintain that three out of four
of 53 women in the group were
able to "validate their memories by obtaining corroborating
evidence from other
sources" (p. 1). However, most of their sample
was of women who had either full or
partial recall of the abuse prior to therapy; only one-fourth
(14) had no recall before
entering the survivors' group. But in discussing the
claimed corroboration, no
distinction is made between women who had always remembered
the abuse and
those who didn't recall it until entering therapy.

In addition, the "corroboration" is not convincing.
The details of the corroboration are
vague and depended upon the reports of the women in
group therapy. Out of the four
case examples the authors present to describe the verification
process, in only two did
the woman have complete amnesia for the abuse prior
to therapy. For one of these,
there was no corroboration of the abuse. For the other,
the corroboration consisted of
the women's report in group therapy of discovering her
brother's pornography
collection and diary after he was killed in Vietnam.
But there is no indication that
anyone else saw the diary or verified what the woman
claimed she found.

Young, et al. (1991), in their report on 37 alleged
satanic cult survivors, claim that
there was corroboration of the alleged satanic ritual
abuse for several. However, all of
the alleged corroborative findings are completely nonspecific
and cannot be said to
provide verification. The "corroboration"
consisted of physical findings such as scars
on the back, a distorted nipple, a "satanic tattoo"
on the scalp and a breast scar on one
patient. But there is no information of detailed medical
workups or photographs of
these alleged physical markings. Other evidence of physical
findings included three
women with endometriosis diagnosed before age 16, one
with pelvic inflammatory
disease at age 15, and one whose school performance
dropped from age 7 to 10
during the years she supposedly was in the cult until
the family moved.

In a longitudinal study, Williams (1992) interviewed
100 women who reported sexual
abuse in childhood in 1973, 1974, or 1975. The women
had all been brought to the
city hospital emergency department and information about
the abuse was
documented in the hospital records. The sexual abuse
ranged from intercourse (36%)
to touching and fondling (33%) and the age at at the
time of the abuse ranged from
infancy to age 12.

The follow-up interviews were when the women were approximately
17 years older.
The women were asked several questions designed to elicit
their responses about
sexual victimization. Williams reports that 38% of the
100 women had amnesia for the
abuse or chose not to report the abuse to the interviewers
17 years later. She claims
that "qualitative analysis of these reports and
non-reports suggests that the vast
majority of the 38% were women who did not remember
the abuse" (p. 20). The study
is then interpreted to support the contention that a
large proportion of sexually abused
women are amnestic for the abuse as adults.

There are several problems with this study. The subjects
are said to have ranged from
infancy to 12 years old at the time of the abuse. Therefore,
an indeterminate number of
the women were abused at such a young age that that
they would not be expected to
remember any events that occurred during this time.
As discussed above, events prior
to age 3, 4, or even 5 are unlikely to be remembered
because of the phenomenon of
childhood or infantile amnesia. This is especially likely
to be the case if the abuse
consisted of fondling or touching, as occurred in 33%
of the cases in Williams's study.
A child who was only touched or fondled may not have
remembered the abuse
because it was not a particularly traumatic or noteworthy
experience. Therefore, for
many of the subjects a concept of traumatic amnesia
or repression will not apply.

The methods section in the only published report of
William's study does not give
sufficient details about the questions that were asked
and what subsequent probes
were used if the woman failed to report the abuse. This
is not a research report but
rather a news story and none of the usual information
permitting an adequate
evaluation of the study is available. There is not sufficient
information to evaluate her
assertion that the "vast majority" of the
women who failed to report the abuse were
amnestic as opposed to simply choosing not to report
the abuse to the interviewer.

A study by Femina, Yeager, and Lewis (1990) is relevant
here. Femina, et al.
conducted a follow-up study of 69 subjects who were
interviewed during young
adulthood. On follow-up 26 gave histories discrepant
with those obtained from records
and interviews conducted in adolescence. Eighteen denied
or minimized abuse when
it was in their records and 8 claimed abuse although
there was none in the records.
Clarification interviews were conducted with 11 of these
subjects-8 who denied
abuse although their records indicated abuse, and 3
who reported abuse when abuse
was not in the records. The authors concluded from the
interviews that all 11 had, in
fact, been abused.

But none of the subjects who had originally denied abuse
had forgotten or "repressed"
their childhood abuse. All acknowledged it in the second
interview and gave reasons
such as embarrassment, a wish to protect the parents,
and a desire to forget for their
previous denial or minimization. The differences between
these results and those
reported by Williams may well be in the type of questions
asked in the interviews.

Briere (1990), in responding to criticisms about the
validity of self-reports of childhood
abuse, justifies accepting clients' reports in a study
by Briere and Zaidi (1989) by
noting that (1) the abuse rate was comparable to rates
found in other studies; (2)
aspects of the clients' victimization correlated with
symptoms that made intuitive sense
and that had been reported by other authors; and (3)
the clinical experience of the
authors suggested that the disclosures were accompanied
by distress, shame, and
fear of stigma, as opposed to enjoyment. None of these
criteria meets acceptable
standards for establishing the veracity of the reports.
This is especially true when the
reports of abuse come from memories uncovered in therapy.

Briere (1992) believes that some adults are amnesic
for some or all of their childhood
abuse and claims that the problem of repressed memories
in retrospective research is
a "significant concern" because the abuse
is therefore not reported (p. 197). But at the
same time he admits that there is no satisfactory way
to ensure the validity of subjects'
recollections. He acknowledges that the accuracy of
sexual abuse reports cannot be
assured in terms of ruling out either false positives
or false negatives. Although he
briefly mentions fantasies, delusions, or intentional
misrepresentations for secondary
gain as possible reasons for false positives, he shows
no awareness of the danger of
clients developing false accounts of abuse through therapy.

The concept of recovered memories rests on a Freudian
model in which the brain
stores all experiences and therapy is seen as a process
of uncovering lost or
repressed memories and thus freeing patients from their
autonomous and sublimated
influence. But this model is inaccurate in terms of
the actual nature of memory. Also
three studies of questionable quality and problematical
scientific status cannot as yet
match the failure of 50 years of concerted research
effort to find evidence to support
repression. Before making any claim that research establishes
repression as a
dynamic internal objective entity, those who want to
do so have a long ways to go to
overcome the negative evidence that is already there
and is well replicated.

In contrast to the few studies purporting to support
the concepts of repressed abuse
and the historical reality of memories uncovered in
therapy are the robust and
repeated findings about the reconstructive nature of
memory. The fact that memory is
reconstruction rather than recall is generally accepted
in the scientific community
(Goodman & Hahn 1987). Although people may believe
that their memories are a
process of dredging up what actually happened, in reality
memories are greatly
affected by events and experiences that intervene between
the event and the present
and the individual's current beliefs, feelings, and
interpretations (Dawes, 1988; Loftus
& Ketcham, 1991; Loftus, Korf, & Schooler, 1989).
This process of memory
reconstruction is so powerful that people can come to
believe firmly in entire events
that never happened (Loftus, 1992; Loftus & Ketcham,
1991).

The process of verbally describing memories, which is
what happens in therapy,
appears to make it even more difficult to distinguish
between memories for real and
imagined events (Suengas & Johnson, 1988). Bonanno
(1990) notes that rather than
uncovering historical truth, therapy results "in
the production of an articulated narrative
understanding or narrative truth" (p. 176). Ganaway
(1991) sums up the situation:

The analogy of an intrapsychic videotape machine recording
traumatic memories in
all their exquisite detail and storing them away in
the unconscious until retrieved via
"flashback" or abreaction during the interview
situation is slick, simplistic and
attractive, but not consistent with a hundred years
of empirical evidence.
Reconstructed memories may incorporate fantasy, distortion,
displacement,
condensation, symbolism, and other mental mechanisms
that make their sum factual
reliability highly questionable. When suggestibility,
high hypnotizability, and fantasy-
proneness are added to the equation, the result is a
potential for such a potpourri of
facts, fantasy, distortion, and confabulation as to
confound even the most astute
investigator attempting to separate the wheat from the
chaff (p. 5).

The therapeutic techniques described above greatly increase
the probability that the
material "remembered" is not historically
true. The suggestibility of vulnerable clients
and their desire to conform to what they believe the
therapist expects and wants, the
beliefs of the therapists about the reality and frequency
of repressed abuse, the
common use of unvalidated and questionable therapy techniques,
and the conformity
effect of a group combine to produce a massive learning
experience for the client.

Evaluating Claims of Recovered Memories

Some professionals have proposed ways of evaluating
claims of alleged sexual
abuse based on recently recovered memories. This is
a new area, lacking in empirical
research, so the suggestions are based on existing knowledge
about such areas as
memory, social influence, suggestibility, conformity,
the psychotherapy process,
hypnosis, and the characteristics and behavior of actual
sexual abusers. Daly and
Pacifico (1991) note that investigating these allegations
of sexual abuse in years gone
by requires new investigative techniques that have not
yet been perfected. However, a
proper evaluation of such allegations requires a broad
range of information about the
individuals involved, the origin of the disclosure,
and the nature of therapy (see Daly & Pacifico, 1991, Rogers, 1992, and Wakefield & Underwager,
in press for suggestions
of important information to be obtained as part of an
investigation).

Gardner (1992a, 1992b)

Although Gardner believes that some accusations of recently
recovered memories are
true, he observes that others are false. He offers guidelines
in terns of characteristics
of cases that suggest they are false.

False accusations are often characterized by a strong
need to bring the abuse to the
attention of the public along with the belief that all
of one's psychological problems
come from the abuse. Gardner sees the women who make
false allegations based on
recovered memories as very angry and hostile and sometimes
paranoid. He believes
that all will have demonstrated some type of psychopathology
in earlier parts of their
lives.

Gardner is harshly critical of the therapists who participate
in the uncovering of false
memories of childhood abuse and sees them as incompetent
and dangerous. He
observes that they show no awareness of well-known facts
and concepts in
psychology, such as the nature of memory. Therefore,
an indication that an allegation
is likely false is the involvement of an inadequately
trained or incompetent therapist
who specializes in uncovering repressed abuse and who
finds abuse in the majority
of his or her patients.

An important guideline for ascertaining the truth or
falsity of an allegation of recently
remembered abuse is the length of time the alleged abuse
took place-the longer the
period of abuse, the less the likelihood of its being
repressed. Repression at age 6 or
7 of events that occurred over a two- or three-year-period
is more credible than the
repression of events that took place from ages 2 to
18. The age at which the abuse is
said to have stopped is another factor. Although one
may forget events that took place
when one was about 5, it is less credible that memory
experiences taking place during
the teen years have been completely obliterated. Gardner
adds that an accusation is
more likely to be false if the individual had no observable
symptoms of the abuse
during the time the abuse supposedly took place.

Memories uncovered with the use of hypnosis run the
risk of being false, especially
since individuals who are good candidates for hypnotherapy
are more suggestible.
Another hallmark of a false accusation is the inclusion
in the allegations of
preposterous and even impossible events. Also, the failure
to see the accused father
and get his input reflects the therapist's overdetermined
bias and therefore strongly
suggests a false accusation. An important indicator
of a false accusation is when the
accuser cuts off contact with those who don't believe
the accusation and surrounds
herself only with "enablers," such as support
groups, therapists, survivor groups, and
friends and relatives who support and encourage the
accusations.

Rogers (1992)

Rogers discusses clinical assessment methods for evaluating
claims of traumatic
memories and describes a decision tree regarding factors
hypothesized to be
associated with valid or invalid complaints. Her focus
is on civil litigation and she
describes several actual cases to illustrate her observations.
She notes that despite
the lack of empirical data, there are some common sense
clues and observations that
can be helpful.

In evaluating a case for litigation, an important consideration
is whether the claimant is
a bona fide patient or is in treatment for reasons other
than pain or dysfunction.
Rogers describes a case in which the individual entered
therapy at the time her
financial resources were depleted and decided on a lawsuit
soon afterwards. The
woman's psychological testing suggested malingering
and the cousin she recovered
abuse memories about was the only person in her extended
family who had
significant money.

Abuse is more likely to be true if the abuse memories
have always been present as
opposed to only surfacing during therapy. However, Rogers
believes that there may
be legitimate cases in which memories return in therapy
after being shoved aside for
years. In those she has seen that appeared to be valid
the therapist did not use
intrusive techniques such as hypnosis, body work, emotional
regression, repeated
probing, directed reading about abuse, and the individual
was not placed in group
treatment until the abuse had already been fully detailed
and documented.

False or exaggerated claims are much more likely to
portray the alleged perpetrator
as a totally bad person who used force and engaged in
sadistic activities. True claims
show more balance and ambivalence. In false or exaggerated
accounts, the
individuals may show major differences across time with
the same incident.

Descriptions of the abuse incidents in false claims
may be much more sparse and
lacking in details compared to other memories during
the same time period. However,
some claimants evidence extremely detailed, highly elaborated
accounts-accounts
that are far more detailed than other events purported
to have occurred during the
same or earlier time periods. These individuals seemed
to have been more deeply
involved in survivors' groups, recovery programs, and
to have done extensive reading
as well as journaling with its attendant introspective
processing.

Wakefield and Underwager (in press)

Wakefield and Underwager discuss several criteria for
assessing the probability or
improbability of an allegation of recently remembered
abuse. They stress that since
this is a new area with little directly relevant empirical
data, these criteria must be
viewed as provisional.

They recommend assessing the allegations in terms of
what is known about the
behavior of actual child sexual abusers. In the absence
of corroborating evidence,
when the allegations are of extremely deviant and low-probability
behaviors, the
recovered memory is unlikely to represent a real event.
It is even more unlikely if the
person accused is psychologically normal or if the accusations
include the mother.

If the recovered memory is for abuse that occurred at
a very young age, such as abuse
during infancy or under age 3 or 4, the phenomenon of
childhood or infantile amnesia
makes it unlikely that the memory is of a real event.
In addition, this is much younger
than the average age of documented sexual abuse victims.

If the abuse has only recently been "remembered,"
it is much less likely to be true than
it has always been remembered but the individual is
only now disclosing. It is
especially unlikely to be true if the accusations only
emerge following reading The
Courage to Heal, hypnosis, survivors' group participation,
or dream analysis. In such
cases, the recovered memories are likely to be the result
of therapy. Although
psychopathology in some individuals may well make them
more susceptible to this
influence, since many of the adult children in the questionnaire
project had no history
of significant problems prior to the recovered memories,
the absence of serious
problems does not mean that the recovered memory is
real.

If there are allegations of a series of abusive incidents
across time in different places
and situations, the abuse is less likely to be true
than if it is for a single incident.
Although an individual can develop amnesia for a highly
traumatic event, with the
exception of MPD, there is nothing in the literature
describing selective amnesia for a
series of traumatic events which occur at different
ages and at different times and
environments.

Any claims that the individual must have been abused
because of problems in her life
must be viewed cautiously. The existence of eating disorders,
sexual dysfunction,
anxiety, depression, or low self-esteem cannot be used
to support the probability of
abuse since these can all be caused by a variety of
factors. Beitchman, et al. (1992)
concluded that as yet there is insufficient evidence
to confirm a relationship between
childhood sexual abuse and borderline or multiple personality
disorder. Pope and
Hudson (1992) reviewed studies on bulimia and sexual
abuse and report that these
studies did not find that bulimic patients show a higher
prevalence of childhood sexual
abuse than do control groups.

When the disclosures progress across time to ever more
intrusive, abusive, and highly
improbable behaviors, the growth and embellishment of
the story is likely to represent
the suggestions and reinforcement in therapy. Allegations
of ritual abuse by
intergenerational satanic cults are highly unlikely
to be true.

Corroborating evidence, such as such as a childhood
diary with unambiguous entries
or pornographic photographs, obviously makes the allegations
more likely to be true.
Ambiguous evidence, however, such as a childhood story
or drawings now
reinterpreted in light of the believed-in abuse, cannot
be used as support that the
abuse actually occurred.

Conclusions

The claims of recovered repressed memories of childhood
sexual abuse represent an
striking phenomenon in the mental health community.
As Gardner (1992a, 1992b)
observes, to believe these "victims" and their
therapists, we must consider childhood
sexual traumas to be a special experience in which well-accepted
psychological
principles are inapplicable and an entirely new set
of psychological principles must be
invented. The claims being presented are at variance
with the scientific knowledge
about the nature of memory and psychological concepts
of dissociation, amnesia, and
the reactions of people to documented trauma.

Accepting the claims about recovered memories of repressed
abuse means accepting
a complex chain of assumptions, speculations, inferred
internal states and mental
processes with limited scientific support and little
if any corroborating data. At best, this
is a low-frequency phenomenon.

On the other hand, there are credible data on the reconstructive
nature of memory,
social influence, conformity, and the power of therapy
to produce conformity in the
patient. It is much more probable that a claim of recovered
memory of sexual abuse
comes from a combination of these factors. It is an
issue of antecedent probability and
the best and most accurate decision always comes from
going with the high base rate
behavior. It is the only ethical choice a scientist
can make.